Linoleic acid is susceptible to oxidative damage, leading to the formation of toxic breakdown products.

“the problem with linoleic acid is polyunsaturated fats uh like omega-6 fats such as linoleic acid and arachidonic acid and omega-3 fats like uh you know fish oil dha and alpha linolenic acid which is the plant omega-3 acid all have these double bonds which makes them compared to a saturated fat very susceptible to oxidative damage right they basically have a as paul just showed in that uh wikipedia article those two little double bonds provide a point at which other molecules including oxygen and catalysts like iron can attack the molecules and break them down the linoleic acid per se is harmless right linoleic acid can break down however into highly toxic substances so what we're really interested when we're looking at human disease and linoleic acid is the substances that it's breaking down into”

“so are we actually concerned about the linoleic acid itself or the breakdown and byproduct of the oxidation it's both in my belief”

“this linoleic acid is a very unstable fatty acid that's not really debated that's an organic chemist's proof you know you can prove that with Organic Chemistry that the more double bonds a molecule has the more unsaturated a fat molecule is and when there are more double bonds and the molecule is more unsaturated then you have more instability at the level of electrons attacking these double bonds kind of organic chemistry complexities”